The intelligence in IIRs must be new, detailed, authoritative, and of interest. IIRs must also respect the right of U.S. persons to participate in constitutionally protected activities. They may not be based solely on the exercise of First Amendment protected activities, or on the race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion of the subject. Threats should be reported via IIR only if the information is sufficiently detailed and reliable to serve as a basis for preventive action. IIRs must conform to these specifications:

New: The information contained in the IIR must not have been previously reported by the same source, open source, or be well-known and assumed as fact by the Intelligence or Law Enforcement Communities;

Detailed: The IIR should answer who, what, where, when, why, and how events in the IIR were attributed to or occurred. All six need not necessarily be included, but the totality of information should provide recipients with enough information to actually use the intelligence (i.e. it should be actionable);

Authoritative: An IIR is authoritative if its source (or sources) could credibly have access to the information presented. The source's access need not be confirmed, but the standard is whether the source could be in a position to have learned the intelligence that the IIR contains;

Of Interest: The IIR must address at least one FBI National or Field Office Collection Requirement; and

U.S. Persons: Any U.S. Person named in the IIR should meet the following standards:

The FBI has an open investigation on the individual or there is an indication or allegation that the person has engaged (or will engage) in criminal activity or a threat to national security;

The IIR would be devoid of analytic/actionable value if the name were excluded and the IIR will assist the recipient agency in conducting a lawful criminal or intelligence investigation or will assist the recipient agency in the performance of any of its authorized functions.